Choice of Arbitrator - Chapter 5 - Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes, Second Edition
James Bridgeman SC, FCIArb, Chartered Arbitrator, is a Senior Counsel, arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator with a practice based at The Law Library, Dublin, Ireland and at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, London, England. He has a special interest in arbitration, ADR, commercial law, construction and intellectual property disputes. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin where he read history and political science and subsequently read Law at the Kings Inn, Dublin. Before commencing practice as a barrister, he qualified as a trademarks attorney. He is a past President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrator and a past Chairman of the Irish Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Mr. Bridgeman is a WIPO-trained mediator and regularly acts as arbitrator and as panelist for Internet-domain-name disputes and has appointed by WIPO, ICC, NAF, Nominet UK and the Czech Arbitration Court. He is a member of the faculty of the Trinity College Dublin Diploma in Construction Law and Contract Administration.
Richard Levin today is the principal at Richard Levin Arbitration LLC and is an international and domestic arbitrator specializing in cross cultural and multi-jurisdictional disputes, as well as antitrust, competition, art-related, and intellectual property arbitrations. He has received many peer recognitions for his work. In his career. he has served both as counsel and arbitrator in many disputes, specializing in competition or antitrust-related matters as well as cases related to investment, high value art, energy, IP, construction, and sports. As arbitrator, he has served on the panel and sole arbitrator in numerous cases, including domestic and international arbitrations (ICC, ICDR, UNCITRAL, AAA) and is a member of the ICC and LCIA Arbitrator Database, the LCIA Users Council, the neutrals list at the AAA, ICDR, HKIAC (Hong Kong), CRCICA (Cairo), KCAB (Korea), the Arbitration Center of the Institute of Modern Arbitration (Moscow), VIAC (Vienna), and other institutions world-wide, He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), has been selected to their highest level as a Chartered Arbitrator (C Arb), and is on the Presidential Panel of Arbitrators at the CIArb. He has been appointed to the Panel of Arbitrators at the Court of Arbitration for Art (Netherlands) and he has been named to the Tech List of the SVAMC (Silicon Valley), listing “the world’s leading technology neutrals.” Mr. Levin is profiled on the Global Arbitration Review Arbitrator Research Tool (GAR ART). Before becoming a full-time arbitrator, he practiced as a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, specializing in international disputes and competition matters. He received his law degree from Georgetown Law Center and was a judicial clerk for the Hon. John C Godbold on the US Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit.
Originally from Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes, Second Edition
The practice of international arbitration is informed by a number of governing principles: the principle of party autonomy, the principle of equality between the parties, the requirement for fair procedures reflected in the requirement that the tribunal should be independent and impartial and the application of the rules of natural justice: audi alteram partem (to hear each side) and nemo judex in causa sua (no one may be a judge in his own cause). These principles have application at each stage of the arbitral process including the procedures for the selection and appointment of the tribunal. They have impact on the selection of the arbitrator, the arbitrator’s duty of disclosure, the criteria applied by courts and arbitral institutions when considering the confirmation and appointment of arbitrators and subsequent challenges to arbitrators or to awards.
This chapter addresses the principles and processes involved in the composition, identification, selection and appointment of competent and qualified arbitrators in international IP disputes and further considers the principles of independence and impartiality that are required or encouraged by the law, the institutional rules and the evolving professional ethical rules for these cases. Among the topics considered are: the composition of the tribunal and the factors that impact on whether to appoint a sole arbitrator or a three-person panel in an IP dispute; the identification of an appropriate candidate and the qualifications and qualities required of an arbitrator in an IP dispute and the requirements for independence and impartiality.